Skin massage is a type of manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of skin and subcutaneous tissue layers. Massage involves acting on and manipulating the skin with pressure. The skin may be manipulated, typically kneaded, manually or with mechanical aids. Whether the massage is done manually or with mechanical aids it is applied to a segment of skin or tissue defined by the hands of the caregiver or the size of the mechanical aids. The remaining segments of the skin are treated by moving the hands or repositioning the mechanical aid across a larger skin segment. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, adipose tissue and other segments of the skin and body. Because of the need to apply pressure to the skin and then repositioning the source of pressure during the treatment (i.e., moving the therapist hands or mechanical aid to a different area of the body), massage is associated with a significant amount of effort and attention that the caregiver has to apply.
Adipose tissue is frequently treated non-invasively by different energies coupled to the skin. Typical types of energies that may be found in use for skin treatment include ultra sound (US) energy, Radio Frequency (RF) energy, or radiation energy emitted by a source of light or heat. The skin treatment energy is coupled to the skin by an applicator. The size of the applicator defines to some extent the segment of skin or tissue to which the skin treatment energy is transferred. In order to treat other skin segments, the applicator is repositioned across a large segment of the skin and activated to couple treatment energy to this segment of skin.
Different types of energy are frequently used for circumference reduction, adipose tissue removal, and other cosmetic procedures where application of skin treatment energy could bring a desired beneficial treatment effect.